44HYStuck
by uraniumUmbreon
Summary: SBURB, like any game, is built using the building blocks of code. So what exactly would happen if this code were to be warped, or corrupted in some manner? Would it simply bug out of an interface basis? Or would the glitching run a deeper and more destructive course?
1. Chapter 1

Unexpected error in execution of task " " (Reason : was not found on your device)

Error 302-5201.

Rebooting….

Installing necessary drivers….

Deploying artificial showers….

Restructuring Game Constructs….

Reboot complete.

SBURB launching….

Thank you for playing with Skaianet.

 **Begin 44hYstuck.**

A young girl stands in her bedroom. Today, the 17th of July, is her 14th birthday. Although it was 14 years ago that she was brought into this world, it is only now that she will be named.

 **Enter name.**

 _Bunsen Van Chucklenuts._

The girl seems to be somewhat ticked off by your sore, humourless attempt at joking about her hairstyle. She turns her back on you for a second, before turning around again, holding a scroll in her hands. Upon it, you can read somebody's name.

 **Enter name.**

Your name is BRÍD MCNOEL, and today is your 14th birthday, as said before. Your brown, smooth hair is tied back in a bun to avoid it getting in the way of your RIMMED SPECTACLES. Upon your shirt, an ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic can be seen, this one being known as the EYE OF HORUS.

You are an ASPIRING AUTHOR, and have written many a draft novel, to be stuffed either in a garbage can or underneath your bed. You despise MODERN-DAY YOUNG ADULT FICTION, fed up with the relentless, unoriginal tropes. Instead, you prefer to read ANCIENT SCRIPTS OF YEARS GONE BY, for their OLD and SOMEWHAT HUMOROUS DEMEANOUR.

You generally have a somewhat PATIENT and CALM DEMEANOUR, however, once even the smallest bit of sugar enters your system, you tend to become HYPER BEYOND BELIEF.

What do you do?

 **Bríd : Examine room.**

Your room is packed with bookshelves, in fact, three out of your four available walls are completely covered by them. Upon your last wall, above the doorway, several ancient scrolls are mounted. You can see a Japanese haiku written in hiragana, a recreation of an Ancient Egyptian artwork, and Beowulf written completely in Anglo-Saxon runes.

Your bookshelves are lined with translations and originals of both famous works of fiction and of non-fiction. You even have a few modern-day books thrown around in there somewhere.

In the middle of your room lies your bed, freshly made. Beside it lies your trusty study table, complete with comfy chair, reading lamp and your own personal laptop. You have a few books about coding lying on your desk, but sadly you could never get too into constructing programs.

It looks like someone is messaging you right now on pesterchum. You can never seem to catch a break with your "chums" constantly messaging you. Right then, they're not going to placate themselves.

 **Bríd : Answer chum.**

-missingDll [MD] began pestering desolateTome [DT] at ER:OR-

[MD]: pesterchum conv

[MD]: bríd? are you there?

[DT]: God damn it Kav

[DT]: Why do you have to break pesterchum every time we have a conversation?

[MD]: because its fun to screw with technology stop

[MD]: why the hell do you have to criticize my lifestyle stop

[DT]: I'm fine with you screwing up your own computer,

[DT]: as long as you don't make it leak over to me.

[DT]: Just look at the time it displays for when this conversation started.

[MD]: shit i hadnt noticed that stop

[MD]: looks like i broke it so much it may have affected the servers stop

[MD]: 5orry 5t0pp ~#

[DT]: And now your keyboard is screwing up again.

[DT]: Just great. Just freaking great.

[DT]: What was it you even wanted to talk to me about anyway?

[MD]: d0 You w4nt t plAy a game?~#\

[DT]: As long as the game doesn't screw my computer up as much as you do yours

[DT]: I'm up for it.

[MD]: this game is supposedly coded from hieroglyphics found in some weird ruins stop

[MD]: and my keyboard is working again, good stop

[MD]: im ripping it from the disks right now stop

[MD]: ill send it to you when im done stop

[DT]: Alright, though I will be putting it through a thorough virus scan.

[DT]: I'll see you then.

[MD]: TTYL /pesterchum conv

That guy seems to never stop breaking some form of software or another. At least it beats his short period of time where he tried to be the "Most 1337 hacker of all time" and hack Faucet's servers.

That gaming network never managed to recover their main servers ever again. It took them off the top 10 gaming applications list. Even Alpha Software outsold it.

 **Bríd : Check strife specibus**

You currently hold the ability to EQUIP SCROLLS AS WEAPONS. You ponder exactly how useless this is on a scale from 1 to 10. You reckon it sits at a reasonable 6.5.

When you first got this thing, you thought it was an extension to your Captchalogue Modus, and you placed an Egyptian Scroll into it. Nowadays, you use it for scroll storage, though you are aware it's intended purpose is to store weapons.

At least you'll probably never need to actually use this thing, right?

 **Bríd : Be the glitchy kid**

You cannot be the glitchy kid because the glitchy kid is already busy being the glitchy kid. Instead, you resolve to be the steampunk kid.

 **Enter name.**

 _Ass McSparkleFarts._

The young boy doesn't seem to react to your terrible name calling. Instead, he continues his previous action : staring at the sky through a telescope. He seems somewhat aggravated at something. Perhaps if you got his name right, he might reveal why.

 **Enter name.**

Your name is MIKE HERING. You are 15 years of age, with black hair and brown eyes, normally covered by your STEAMPUNK GOGGLES. You habitually wear a HOODIE with the hood up, covering your hair. Upon your shirt, a symbol of the CONSTELLATION for THE BIG DIPPER is clearly visible.

You have a strange obsession with MONITORING and GRAPHING the NIGHT SKY, even going so far as to hand-draw a STAR MAP on one of the walls of your bedroom. However, you don't exactly flaunt this about, and instead attempt to FIT INTO the MAINSTREAM archetype, going so far as to actively play in SPORTS TEAMS and buying OVERPRICED GENERIC SHOOTERS. Even your hoodie is branded with several different companies logos.

You try to be somewhat RECKLESS and HEADSTRONG, even sometimes AGGRESSIVE, in order to fit in with what most people demand of you, but when you speak with your close friends in PESTERCHUM, you sometimes exhibit your TIMID, and somewhat SHY side.

What will you do?

 **Mike : Examine room.**

Your room is somewhat cluttered at this time. Nevertheless, you try and get a good look at it's makeup.

The eastern-most wall is completely covered by a STAR MAP, one your own Grandfather made, before he disappeared into the Bermuda Triangle. Cluttering the floor are STAR CHARTS, made by your own hand. These charts record and display THE MOVEMENT AND ALIGNMENT OF THE STARS. You're pretty proud of how many there are.

Upon the northern-most wall, several posters of MYSTERIOUS AND FAR-AWAY PLANETS line the wall, interrupted only by the likes of wardrobes and dressers. On one such dresser, a desktop computer lies, currently on. Beside it, a fresh mug of hot chocolate and several biscuits are lying on top of a magazine entitled "Astronomy Today".

The easternmost wall is, for the most part, glass, with curtains either end to allow one to sleep. A small door located in the middle of the pane allows one to approach a balcony, where a telescope stand lies.

Finally, the southernmost wall is filled with posters of football stars, rugby players and other famous sporting figures. You use this wall as a backdrop for the most part when you video call people from your peer group. It pays to keep up an impression.

 **Author's Note**

And thus begins my first story on this site and hopefully it shall be a good one. I appreciate **constructive criticism** , however, please bear in mind that I'm **not exactly experienced in this field or on this site** , so formatting errors or the likes could very well occur.


	2. Chapter 2

**Mike : Approach balcony.**

You approach the balcony, and gave upwards into the sky. On any normal night, the sky would be nice and clear, brimming with stars, interrupted only by the snowflakes drifting from above. Alas, tonight is different.

You retrieve your telescope from your telescopekind strife deck, and set it down on your telescope stand, gazing through it into the sky. You catch a quick glimpse of a flare, probably a meteor's tail, before it disappears from your vision.

You're certain something is going on here. A few moments ago you saw an unusually large meteor in the earth's atmosphere, hurtling down to the far east of where you live, and now you've seen another?

You should probably notify somebody about this.

 **Mike : Notify somebody.**

Restoring your computer from its slumber, you quickly bring up pesterchum, and open up messaging faculties within it. You begin a conversation with a chum.

-unendingExploration [UE] began pestering missingDll [MD] at 10:45-

[UE]: Kav, are you there?

[UE]: Please be there, Kav, please..

[MD]: im in the middle of doing something [stop]

[MD]: whattaya want [stop]

[MD]: shit the codey thing doesn't feel natural when you started the conv [stop]

[MD]: goddamn it this better be important to risk losing my mojo [stop]

[UE]: Alright, I was looking into the night sky

[UE]: and I saw a massive meteor

[UE]: it flew over my house and continued eastwards

[UE]: then I saw another one in the sky

[MD]: shit man really?

[MD]: crap i thought time was limited but not this bloody much!

[MD]: 1m gOnnnnn4 h4v3 To GEt my $$ iN G34R [5t0p]

[UE]: Good luck doing that with your terrible keyboard

[UE]: though what do you mean, time is limited?

[MD]: y0u saw it yourself, didn't you?

[MD]: in your weird golden world dream

[UE]: How did you knwo about that?

[UE]: Have you been spying on me?

[MD]: n0t t3ll1ng yu0 ny M0Dus OP3rat1

[MD]: but it was the same as this, wasn't it?

[UE]: Are you telling me my dream was some sort of prophecy?

[MD]: i dont know anything about why or how you had that dream

[MD]: but it certainly foretold this

[MD]: my s0urc3 coD3 informs me s0o0o

[UE]: I'll close this chat before your terrible keyboard ends up glitching into my pc

[MD]: good idea [stop]

[MD]: and by the way, when i send you a weird game in a few minutes

[MD]: y0u b33Tr p!4y iT.

 **Mike: Mull over thoughts.**

You retrieve a CUSHION from your ORBIT MODUS by grabbing it as its orbit reaches your hand.

Impending probable doom isn't exactly the easiest thing to deal with, and you've had enough things to deal with as it is. It's hard to keep up a facade that everything is ok, when it's not, and you're not quite sure you want your life to end as you are now.

Fulfilling your necessary introspective time, you quickly sit up, replace the cushion on your bed, and await the games sending from your friend.

 **Mike : Be Bríd.**

You are now Bríd. You can hear some really weird noises outside your house. It sounds like some dog is going mad out there, constantly either barking or whimpering.

You would be able to get a good look at it, had you not closed off the only window in your room with an extra bookshelf years ago. Nice thinking, smartass.

It seems like someone is messaging you again. You should probably answer that.

 **Bríd : Rip off copy of Beowulf and consume it.**

You would never do such a thing! This scroll-based copy of Beowulf is very dear to your heart. You wouldn't even dare to think of sullying its integrity…...except you just did.

The stress must be getting to you. That dog still won't shut up and messages are still going through from one of your chums.

 **Bríd : Answer chum.**

-missingDll [MD] began pestering desolateTome [DT] at 17:00-

[MD]: brid are you there?

[MD]: brid answer me [stop]

[MD]: screw it, i'll put it here anyway

-missingDll [MD] attached a file : %58UR8%.zip-

[MD]: make sure to extract it

[MD]: b33 suuuuuuRe 2 PuT " " iN th3 smae flOd3r aS " " aND "oVer1de.~ath"

[MD]: s0rry lemme kick my c0mputer [5t0p]]]]

[MD]: better?

[MD]: ok so its " " not whatever the glitch says up there

[MD]: the ath files name is that glitch though

[DT]: I'm here. And what even is an ~ath file?

[MD]: i thought you had read books on coding [stop]

[DT]: Yeah, I have...wait, how did you know that?

[MD]: not important

[MD]: just install the g0dddD4mN f1les

[MD]: h0Ok uP w1th m1kes serve r c0py [st0p]

[MD]: and to answer your question partially

[MD]: the ath file is there to try and stop the glitches from infecting your pc

[DT]: But you promised you wouldn't send me glitched up virus files!

[MD]: 1 maY h4v3 acC1d3ntl;y %infected% teh mane executable

[MD]: why is my keyboard so shitty

[MD]: also i promised you nothing

[DT]: Your keyboard's state is your own fault, and you know it.

[DT]: You will get no sympathy from me.

[MD]: just run the goddamn file

You do as he says, and extract the zip onto a folder on your desktop. You run a quick virus scan on it, but the code is so glitched up the anti-virus doesn't detect anything. According to it, this folder is empty.

Needless to say, you better get this show on the road. You double click the exe to begin installation of its main files, and you ready your pesterchum to give the signal to your friend.


End file.
